We awoke this morning very sore from yesterday’s hike up Mount Machu Picchu. Every step is ouch, ouch, ouch. And stairs are near to impossible.
After breakfast we took the train back to Ollantaytambo and checked into our hotel Sumac Chaska. Melissa was too sore to go for more hiking. So Holly, Mike, and Dave went up the hill to see the ruins behind the town.
The ruins you see in the distance are the Inca fort.
And these are grain storage that is believed to have been used as a bank as grains were used as currency.
Then we toured the town of Ollantaytambo itself. This town is still living in the Inca structures. In fact some of them predate the Incas. This giant corner stone was set by the Incas. Note the slight inward tilt of the building walls. Dave measured and it averaged about 4 degrees throughout the city. This was to help stabilize the buildings during earthquakes.
This wall needed some maintenance. For whatever reason they planned to take it down and reassemble it later. You can see what they did to ensure they could put it back together again.
In one shop there were a ton of these guinea pigs running around. They aren’t pets here. They are a delicacy and all the restaurant menus offer them. We just can’t do it though. We tried the Alpaca which turns out to taste a lot like a very lean beef. But these little guys – no way.
